Original:
The ultimate purpose of that representation was
justification. The eye-witness
accounts, such as Cortes’s letters or Jerez’s narrative of the massacre at
Cajamarca, framed the justification of personal actions and roles within a
larger context of imperial justification.
The later writings of the chroniclers further developed the theme of
justification into an ideology of imperialism that represented the Conquest as
a dual mission, bringing both civilization and Christianity to the
Americas. In the great
sixteenth-century histories by Gómara, Antonio de Herrera, and Gonzalo
Fernández de Oviedo the succession of discoveries and conquests are part of a
providential plan to bring the true faith to the whole world. The Spaniards are obviously the agents
of that divine plan, and the most prominent conquistadors are thus presented as
God’s principal agents. (Restall,
14)
Paráfrasis:
Restall dice que el propósito de la
representación escrita era justificación.
Los narrativos de Cortes y sus compañeros trataron de justificar los
actos de los conquistadores cómo aspectos necesarios de la misión del
imperialismo. Los historiadores
pinta la conquista y los descubiertos cómo un gran plan para ayudar a los
indígenas de las Américas. Por los
historiadores, los españoles eran los agentes divinos de los cambios, responsables
para llevar la cristianismo y la civilización a las Américas (Restall, 14).
Obra citada:
Restall, Matthew. “A Handful of Adventurers. The Myth of Exceptional Men”. Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest. Oxford UP, 2004. 1-26. Web. ebrary.
